Friday July 18 was sadly lost a true warrior, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away of cancer and in doing so, left a powerful legacy and a huge election year debate.
After the deaths of Elijah Cummings and John Lewis this year, the death of RBG as she's been known as hit a lot of Liberals in an already tense election year between Joseph R. Biden and Donald J. Trump. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009. Though she showed no symptoms at first, a further exploration found it in her spleen. After removing it, she was again healthy until 2018 when nodules were found in her left lung that had to be removed. Still having to go through various treatments, she didn't let that stop her from being a force in the United States Supreme Court.
Appointed by Bill Clinton, RGB had been a force to be reckoned with since 1972 as a defender of gender equality and equal rights. In her early legal career, she founded the Woman's Rights Project at the ACLU and stayed on at their legal counsel. In her early days, she spent a crusading career of law that took her all the way to the Supreme Court where she continued fight for gender equality across the board. Being in the liberal wing of the Supreme Court, she fought for everything from Civil Rights cases for African-Americans, the right for gay marriage, upholding key provision of the Affordable Care Act (dubbed Obamacare) as well as taking away a lot of Depression-era EPA violations improving the environment.
While her death should be celebrated as a job in life well done, it's become marred in controversy. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wants to rush a vote to confirm her replace immediately. Donald Trump wants that position to be held by a female. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) both oppose Graham and their other fellow Senate Republicans' proposal. They join Democrats and other critics who not only feel it's too soon after her death, they feel it's a job for whomever wins the general election in November to pick the nominee.
Two Super PAC groups called The Lincoln Project and Lindsey Must Go have set out to use Senator Graham's statements from 2016 that states that no president in the last year of their term should pick the next Supreme Court nominee and even went on to say the next president should be the one to make that nomination.
The point of the ad by the Super PACs are to point out the hypocrisy of Graham and to now hold him accountable for the words he used four years ago. Four years ago when Justice Antonin Scalia died, then President Obama didn't rush name is replacement out of respect for his family and for Lindsey Graham's words of not replacing him right away.
What many critics are angry about is Conservatives started discussing her replacement not even hours after RBG's passing. Their goal is to fill the seat before November 3rd. That way, if Trump is still president, he'd have a legal leg to stand on in government on a lot of issues like abortion, the Affordable Care Act, and racial legislation in this country. If Biden is president, Conservatives can sue him over any law they don't agree with and they'll have a majority vote in the Supreme Court to block him. This makes it a win-win for Republicans no matter who's elected president.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her later years have become a pop culture icon because of her crusading for justice. Dubbed a "superhero", she has become one of the newest icon for women who choose to set out to be anything they want. She's even inspired children as she's mentioned throughout kids cartoons and even had a cameo in 2019's The Lego Move 2: The Second Part.
No matter what happens in the last few weeks of this election year, RBG's passing has now energized voters more than ever. People are writing their senators hoping they would wait to replace her after the election. Many other voters are not even waiting on that. Voter registration is up and over 71 million dollars was raised by Democrats thus far and still climbing.
Stay right here for updates as they become available.